RB Leipzig: 2021/22 season preview
Boasting new striker Andre Silva, RB Leipzig look to continue their perpetual upward trend as American coach Jesse Marsch takes over at the Red Bull Arena for 2021/22…
Last season
Leipzig finished second in the Bundesliga in 2020/21 and reached the final of the DFB Cup – both feats that were achieved for only the second time in their still short history. Under Julian Nagelsmann, they were breathing down Bayern Munich’s necks for most of the season and had only lost three times prior to Matchday 27, when a narrow 1-0 defeat to the eventual champions left them an ultimately unsurmountable seven points behind. The gap in the end was 13 as Die Roten Bullen claimed the runners-up spot for the first time since their maiden top-flight campaign.
Nagelsmann also guided the team in his second season in charge to the cup final, where they missed out on a first major silverware against Borussia Dortmund. In Europe, the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League semi-finalists got wins over Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and Istanbul Basaksehir to qualify again from the group before elimination at the hands of Liverpool in the last 16.
Despite the success of the team, it was still a transitional year on the pitch with the squad adapting to the loss of spearhead Timo Werner. Yussuf Poulsen was the top scorer in all competitions with just 11 goals, while no player got more in the Bundesliga than captain Marcel Sabitzer’s eight. Conversely, they did boast the league’s meanest defence, and goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi kept the most clean sheets in the division, proving there are solid foundations there to build on.
New arrivals
The club have looked to put that lack of goals right by signing Silva from Eintracht Frankfurt. He scored a new club record of 28 goals in the Bundesliga last season, which was one more than Erling Haaland got at Dortmund and second only to Robert Lewandowski’s peerless 41. The 25-year-old Portugal international comes through the Red Bull Arena door alongside fellow centre-forward Brian Brobbey (19) from Ajax.
Watch: Silva’s 28 Bundesliga goals in 2020/21
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New coach Marsch, who was previously assistant for a year at the club under Ralf Rangnick and joins from sister club Red Bull Salzburg, will also have to re-jig the Leipzig defence following the departures of Dayot Upamecano (Bayern) and Ibrahima Konate (Liverpool). Josko Gvardiol and Mohamed Simakan have been signed in their place, following the traditional RB method of buying young. Full-backs Angelino and Benjamin Henrichs have also had their loan deals made permanent for this season.
How might Leipzig line up?
What to expect
Leipzig have finished inside the top three in all but one of their five Bundesliga campaigns to date. There’s the argument to say they are now Bayern’s closest rivals for the Meisterschale, ahead of Dortmund, but they have to maintain that. Marsch arrives a serial winner on the back of two domestic doubles with Salzburg and having also taken the fight to the Munich club in two Champions League group games last season.
A prolonged title challenge and runs in the cup and Champions League will be the club’s goals once again as they build on the foundations Nagelsmann laid before his move to Bayern. We can also likely expect a continuation of the RB tradition of fast, attacking football, given Marsch’s education with the New York Red Bulls and latterly in Salzburg, either side of his year as assistant in Leipzig.
Opening fixtures
DFB Cup: Sandhausen 0-4 Leipzig
Mainz vs. Leipzig (Sunday, 15 August)
Leipzig vs. VfB Stuttgart (Friday, 20 August)
Wolfsburg vs. Leipzig (Sunday, 29 August)
Leipzig vs. Bayern Munich (Saturday, 11 September)
Champions League: First group game (14/15 September)
Cologne vs. Leipzig (Saturday, 18 September)
Leipzig vs. Hertha Berlin (Saturday, 25 September)
Click here to download all of Leipzig's Bundesliga fixtures to your calendar
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